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His Majesty King Mohammed VI inaugurated at Al Korea District the regional branch of the Mohammed VI National Center for the Disabled, an initiative that would give momentum to the integration of special needs people.

Carried out by the Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity for 37 million dirhams, this project mirrors the Sovereign's solicitude for the disabled and his unflagging will to empower them and use their potential to benefit the development under way in the Kingdom.

Similar to the regional centers of Safi, Marrakesh, Oujda and Fez, this new facility will offer the Casablanca-Settat region a place for medical and socio-educational supervision destined for people with physical or mental disabilities, as well as a propitious framework to pool efforts by NGOs and ensure adequate health care for this social segment.

The regional branch is aimed at preventing and providing early medical care in cases of disability, from a medical and educational viewpoint, promoting adaptive sports, offering social care for disabled kids and supporting their families (parental guidance), assisting associations involved in the same field and dispensing vocational training for targeted individuals.

The new center will also contribute to building capacities and promoting scientific research on the back of partnerships with the academic and scientific sphere (universities, university hospital center..).

Built over 6,000 m2, the facility comprises a social division, a socio-educational division, a medical-social division, a sports division, a department for vocational training, a housing - catering department and an administrative division. The social division is meant to provide assistance and social guidance for special needs people and their families. The socio-educational division offers outpatient services for disabled kids and teenagers, notably an adequate educational and pedagogical supervision to gain greater autonomy and take part in social life. With a capacity to serve 200 young people aged 6 to 15, this division includes mainly an area for parents, workshops for music, handicrafts, plastic arts and theater, and activity zones for autistic children, CP children and developmentally-delayed children.

As for the medical-social division, it is aimed at screening disability, dispensing health care and rehabilitating for a better adaptation to the environment. The division, which can house up to 150 beneficiaries from all ages, includes rooms for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, orthoptics, dental surgery, psychology and GP consultations, as well as an orthopedic fitting workshop. The sports division seeks to promote adaptive sports by offering for its daily 150 beneficiaries (aged over 8) adapted equipment as a weightlifting room, an indoor pool and a sports field. With a capacity of 60 interns aged 18-25, the vocational training department, set up in partnership with the Office of vocational training and labor promotion (OFPPT) provides the beneficiaries with the chance to get training in a job that is adapted to their specific disability.

Concerning the housing - catering department, it comprises a refectory, a kitchen and two dormitories (men/women) for associations working in the disability field and coming to Casablanca to participate in sporting, socio-educational or cultural events.

The new facility also has an administrative division composed of a conference room and a media library with spaces for reading, exhibition, computer, audio-visual material and broadcasting of the "Web Handi Radio" by the Mohammed VI National Center for the Disabled.